


The Love of a General

by awildlokiappears



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types
Genre: For Carrie, Gen, May the Force Be With You
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-28
Updated: 2016-12-28
Packaged: 2018-09-12 19:53:51
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,640
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9087910
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/awildlokiappears/pseuds/awildlokiappears
Summary: For Carrie.Leia asks a favor of her favorite pilot.





	

"General Organa? We have arrived at the coordinates." He paused, glancing out over the vast expanse of empty space, and bowed his head in solemn respect as slowly, achingly, she made her quiet way to the bulkhead, gazing out at the hollow field of space before them. He slipped behind her, offering no support, but only because she would not take it; he knew the measure of her better than a good many of the Rebellion. She stared out at the empty spot and gave a tired, weary sigh.

"...You have my thanks, Poe." He bowed, as was proper, but her hand (so light, her tremble worse now, but oddly grounding) touched his shoulder and he glanced up. Her smile was small; thin, and so sad, but it was there, and she urged him up. "None of that. We're equals here." He almost opened his mouth to fight her on it, but one look and he swallowed his retort. "We are. Especially here. You...know what this is, don't you?"

"...This was Alderaan."

"Alderaan, and her moons, and the planets that made up our system. All of them have fallen due to the Empire. All of them are dust now, or broken, battered rocks with not even a scrap of life..." Her voice quavered, for just a moment, then steadied, and he closed his eyes in sympathy. Poe couldn't begin to imagine the grief she must have still felt...time did not, sadly, heal everything.

"They took my home from me. My people. My father...My mother. I will not deny that there was hatred. There was an ugly hatred in me, for what they had done. And no one, not even a Jedi, could have denied me that, Poe. I wanted revenge, but more than that, I wanted annihilation. And I got it. Oh, how I got it. Destroying both Death Stars filled me with, I suppose, the same righteousness that Tarkin, that Palpatine, that so many Imperials had felt upon the death of Alderaan. And Luke couldn't even begin to blame me! And yet..."

She paused, her face in shadow, and Poe felt the air sharpen, just a little. There'd always been rumors that the Princess...The General, that she was no less sensitive to the Force than her twin, she simply used it in much subtler ways. He believed them, because there was a shadow in her, the likes of which he'd seen in Kylo Ren, had seen in the remaining holos of Vader...but this was...not rage, like Ren. He wondered if perhaps grief could turn one to the Dark side. She sighed again, shaking her head, and the moment slipped away.

"And yet, I blamed myself. My father, the Senator, and my mother, the Queen, they would not have asked me to go forth in anger. They would have asked me to fight, but to fight for peace, for love, for equality...So I turned my anger to purpose, and my purpose was to rebuild the Republic. I succeed, only to watch my nightmare be reborn...Star Killer. Of course the remaining Imperials would seek to continue their mad emperor's work...

"I am grateful for your friend, Poe. I am honored by his bravery, by yours, and by Rey's. I am profoundly grateful that Chewie went with her in the Falcon, and that she seeks out Luke. Perhaps the Jedi can be reborn. Perhaps there is hope yet still. But...this is not why we came here." He shook his head, still a little baffled, and let her pass back towards the back of the small shuttle, where an old, battered cushion lay in the center of the small seating area. He'd moved all the seats out prior to their flight at her request, and he settled on his navigator's chair, resting his elbows on his knees as she knelt.

The position she took was oddly familiar; prayer-like, though her hands remained on the tops of her thighs, her dark blue robes surrounding her like ocean waves. Her long, graying hair was confined only in a simple braid down her back, so much different from her normal elaborate coiffs, and something in him recognized her. No...another image, of a Queen, no less graceful, taken too soon. _Amidala of Naboo...like this, they could be sisters...or...mother and daughter._ It was possible, distantly; Leia had been adopted, but the secrets of her parentage lay dust and ash...

The hum took him by surprise, and he covered his exclamation with a hastily muffled cough. Looking back up, one brown eye was glaring faintly at him, but it slipped closed as the hum built and built. The tune was one he'd never heard before, wistful and sweet, and when she began to sing, he very nearly started again. Her voice was rough, aching as the words in a long-dead language filled the silence of the shuttle, bittersweet but still so lovely. He remembered when he'd walk through the halls back at the base, and hear a lullaby in that gravely voice of hers, usually to a child she'd offered to care for while the parent flew a mission.

This however...this was no lullaby. The song rose and Leia's voice rose with it, stronger now, daring the darkness to swallow the light (and how did he know that? He'd never even heard ancient Alderanian...) And that's when he noticed the light. It was a faint, faint outline of her body, back rigid, eyes closed, hands flat on her thighs...but it was growing with each line of the song, glowing golden in the dim light. His readings from the remains of the Senate library, where an enterprising Padawan had long ago secreted eons of knowledge in the form of miniature, decorative datacrons to escape the Empire's notice after the first Sacking of Coruscant, came to mind.

_...Of all the masters of the Force, the Jedi and Sith hold a power unique to their ranks, rarely manifested but nearly always held by a user of human origin, that of the Force Adept. Adepts were rare, and oftentimes only carried down through familial lines, usually matriarchal. The best known examples of such are Master Bastilla Shan and her granddaughter, Grand Master Satele Shan...The Force Adept, unlike any other user, is capable of manipulating the very tides of battle and cooperation, swaying the opposing side to truce while they claim victory. Bastilla and Satele were most notable in their strength of this, and are legendary for their power, rare though it may be. Users in such a battle often would have a golden glow about them as they meditated through the Force..._

As the glow grew, his eyes widened even more; it could only be the work of a Force Adept, because the other notable part of that entry had been that both Satele and Bastilla had been capable of using the Force to take away their age for a time...leaving behind strength and power when they needed it the most...and Leia was doing just that. Her wrinkles smoothed, her lips flushed with color, her hair a gleaming dark brown...and...her eyes. Opening as she stood, slowly, Leia's eyes were glowing with golden light, her voice softening only a little as she sang on, her youth once more restored to her.

But...there was no battle here, nothing that that power could be directed to...Beautiful as the song was, he had no idea what she was trying to accomplish...When, out of the corner of his eye, he noticed a chunk of rock turning around, slowly but surely. He blinked, standing up as Leia stood before the main bulkhead window, her arms outstretched now as the glow enveloped her, and he realized that, slowly, there was a cloud of dust and debris forming. Not enough to harm the ship, no; Leia was far too wise for that. The spinning grew, and grew, and began to whirl and form.

Golden sparks ran along every tiny rock out there as a tiny planet began to take shape, and Poe felt his heart leap into his throat, staring at the miracle before him. He'd seen how many battles had turned for the better with the General at the helm, had watched, personally, the most impossible fights turn the tide, but this...this was beyond even the great Jedi Yoda. This was _healing_ a planet, not merely stopping a battle on one...and he watched in awe as it began to ripple and quake, the core growing hotter and hotter before finally cooling the crust above.

The spinning slowed too, just little by little, and as the golden sparks faded away, the new planet was beginning to form oceans anew, beginning the cycle that would, one day, make the entire ecosystem flourish once more. The glow faded back into her as well as the ring of remaining debris started to form around the planet, and she looked now with her young eyes, eyes that were overflowing with tears as she carefully touched the cold plastiglass.

"...My last gift, my people. Our song, our language...soon, so soon, I will be nothing more than dust too. Thank you, my people, for your spirit, your strength...and forgive me the time I took to return." Her voice broke at that last word, and he caught her as she collapsed, her youthful vigor fading into her regal true age. "Poe..."

"General Organa, do you need medical care?" He asked only because he would hate himself if he didn't, and she shook her head, curled as she was against his chest. He did, however, grab his jacket and wrap it around her; her wry smile made him grin sheepishly in return.

"...No, and it's a pity you love that young Finn so much; I'm in the market for a new husband, and they tell me the younger models are much better looking." He laughed, laughed like he hadn't in years, it felt like, and Leia chuckled, patting him on the cheek. "On second thought, I'm too old for this shit; we'd best head back." He nodded his head to the neo-planet outside their very shuttle in question, and she just sighed again, shaking her own with a sad smile.

"No, I think it wise to go away for now. I've done all I can; the rest will take time, and the spirits of the lost. I am...surprised by how many answered the call...I didn't expect there to be any left, to be quite honest." He helped her into her chair, strapping her in, and just shook his head in awe.

"...General, I have no idea how you accomplished this; there's nothing in ANY of the records that shows that sort of power." She shrugged as he turned them away to make the hyperspace jump, gazing out at the glowing soft orb, swathed in a few hundred thousand miles of blue dust and silvery rock, settling into its proper orbit around the sun. It was in the exact orbital path as the prior planet, and Poe was, frankly, beyond impressed.

"It depends on the records. There were races, lost even to the Old Republic, that built things that only hinted at powers we couldn't ever hope to control. The Star Forge, the Rakata Empire...Some Jedi, were once the original teachers of the Dark side, and they came to the Sith kingdoms of Korriban, spreading their dark teachings...There are layers upon layers upon layers of things in this galaxy, Poe, that leave a hundred million questions, still waiting to be answered. And I only guided the spirits in the Force; they did the work. I called, they came. They rebuilt Alderaan, and I wager in a year, maybe two, we'll be able to walk unaided upon its surface."

He shot her a skeptical look at that, well aware of how long a planet required to become habitable, and she laughed softly.

"Trust me, Poe; they wanted to go home. The Force is strong there, perhaps stronger than any other place in the galaxy now, because there had been a huge resurgence in belief in the Light side of the Force amongst our people, a faith that was unshaken even in death. And...that, I think, is the strength of the Force. That is where my belief has, and always will, lie unshaken. I did not believe that I was sensitive to it, mind you...but...I believed. And this...this has been many, many years in learning." He glanced over as they made the lightspeed jump, eyes wide, and she chuckled, closing her own.

"Incredible though it might seem, nothing is without practice. And...I don't have long left, Poe. Too many years fighting, too many battles...too many losses lying so heavy on my heart."

"Han..."

"Han, and others. The Admiral. The Counselor. Thousands of troops, of fighters, of pilots and gunners, down to the young men and women, fresh off the farm fields. I loved Han, yes. But...he did not hold all of my heart. He held his share, as did Ben. As does Luke, and Chewie, and even you. But I love all the people who fight under my banner, and those who fought by my side. They are just as loved. And that will be what ends me, I think. Love...not hate. Not really a bad way to go, don't you think?"

He took a deep breath as they descended to Coruscant, taking the flight path to the Alliance's new headquarters within the ancient Jedi Temple...darkened though it was by the Emperor when he made it the Imperial Palace. Now, however, it was safe enough for the Alliance to be housed there...and Poe couldn't help smirking to himself a bit. It was only fair, after all. As he set the path, he decided on his answer to his General.

"...No, it's not a bad way to go at all. If...and this is just between us, Leia..." She glanced up at him at that, almost sharply, and he gently took her hand, cupping her cool fingers between his two warm ones. "If you can hang on until Alderaan can be properly rechristened...I would be honored to pilot your last flight." Those brown eyes softened, so tired and so weary.

"...And if I can't?"

"Then I would fly you down anyway."

"...It's a deal, Poe. And...thank you." He smiled, soft and a little sad.

"You're very welcome, General Organa.

* * *

  
_Two years later._

The soft song of the rain outside his tent woke him; he checked the acidity before dropping his protective shields, and sighed in relief when it proved safe. He walked outside, pulling up his hood, and began the long trek back up the mountain to finish what he'd begun three days ago...only this time, he wasn't alone. The man who met him at the ridge overlooking the beautiful new sea was silent, as always; Luke Skywalker had not spoken once these three days, since he'd arrived from the wilds of space on the Falcon.

Somewhere, far below, Finn and Rey were exploring with Chewie and R2 and BB. Across the sea, a new Alliance was building a proper home, in awe of this incredible new world, forested in deep green and capped with snowy peaks. It was a beautiful, poignant symbol of not only the tireless strength of the Alliance and the Rebellion, but the strength of tens of millions of souls, now resting peacefully at long last. Luke, however, only had eyes for one spot, and Poe knew, deep down, that if he ever returned, it would only be here.

But Poe couldn't begrudge him the silence...after all, the grave they stood over...

Was Leia's.


End file.
